Import ban mooted

Press, 29 August 1980, Page 4

Import ban mooted

PA Auckland The Clothing Workers’ Federation may soon ask the Federation of Labour to stop Asian goods coming into New Zealand.

The general secretary of the federation (Mr F. Thorn) said the clothing and textile industry was taking the brunt of the Government’s restructuring of industry.

“We are not known as a volatile or militant union, but we are not going down without fighting,” he said.

In Auckland to address a meeting of the Clothing and Footwear Institute, Mr Thom said yesterday that clothes coming from lowcost areas; such as Taiwan,

Hong Kong, and Singapore were not costing the consumer much less than New Zealand-made goods. “Retailers and importers are having a ball,” he said. Mark-ups on the imported clothes were so high that they cost almost as much as domestically made clothes, although they were made much more cheaply. “While people are being laid off in this country there is no reason why we should be importing low-cost garments,” Mr Thom said. Nearly 100 women would lost their jobs when a clothing factory near Wellington closed next week, Mr Thom said.

He would not name the

factory, but said that some of those who lost their jobs would visit the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) and the Labour shadow cabinet next week. After that the F.O.L. would probably be approached to discuss stopping the importation of the Asian goods. The restructuring of the industry was not necessarily a bad thing, but it was being done too quickly, Mr Thom said.

Thousands of jobs were being lost, and the clothing and textile industry was taking more than its share of what was happening to the economy, he. said.